Paper checks can be used to pay bills and purchase goods and services. When a business receives a check from a customer, the business needs to present the check to a bank in order to cash the check or deposit the check into a business account. Since the implementation of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act in 2004, it is now possible to send the image of a check to the bank instead of sending the actual paper check to the bank. As technology advances, banks and other financial institutions are increasingly providing online facilities that allow end users to deposit checks online based on rules that govern check image exchange.
Most current solutions for producing an image of a check require the end user to utilize special purpose check scanners. These check scanners are typically purchased, leased, or rented from banks or other financial institutions. These special purpose check scanners scan the checks and also perform character recognition on the bank number and the account number printed in a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)-type font on the bottom of the scanned checks. These scanners are costly and cannot be used for general purpose scanning of other types of documents.